Unsolved Homicide

Poem by Rocco Valentini

Artwork Sourced From Pinterest. Artist: Unknown.

Unsolved Homicide

by Antonio Rocco S. (Rocco Valentini)

No eyes return to the case file.
No hands seek out new evidence.
What killed the American Dream?

ONE-EIGHT-SEVEN

Once, red lights flashed
Across tracks that carried us
Toward new horizons.

ONE-EIGHT-SEVEN

Now, America's future rolls away
In foreign boxcars
As politicians punch tickets
Like train conductors.

ONE-EIGHT-SEVEN

Their rhetoric roars like engines,
Shuttling minds
Down steel tracks toward oblivion.

ONE-EIGHT-SEVEN

Once, a single wage
Built a home for many;
Now, it scarcely shelters one.

ONE-EIGHT-SEVEN

A white picket fence on a suburban lawn,
Now only a curtain pulled tight
In a studio apartment.

ONE-EIGHT-SEVEN

Who signed our obituary?
Was our death certificate printed
In the same ink the Fed uses to print money?

ONE-EIGHT-SEVEN

What killed the American Dream?

Footnote: ONE-EIGHT-SEVEN is police code for homicide.